Results 8,241-8,260 of 9,832 for speaker:Thomas Byrne

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: I did not say that.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: The Minister should ask the person with the placard to explain the point to her.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: I did not say that.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: The Minister is doing it the other way around.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: What training is being provided to staff? Who decides if an alternative repayment arrangement is not being complied with? This is an intolerable burden to be putting on the community welfare officer. I do not know how he or she will do it. He or she will have to go through all of the documentation to ensure it has been complied with. The Minister has not answered the question as to what...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: They are not the people deciding whether to grant a payment. I was referring to welfare officers.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: What the Minister describes would be achieved if there were an obligation on the financial institution, the mortgage lender, to enter into one of these alternative repayment arrangements. There is no such positive obligation. I agree they have to be nice and think about all the aspects of the case and engage with the borrower. There is an obligation on the vulnerable borrower, but not on...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: With all due respect, this section has been badly thought through. The idea in principle is a good one, namely, that we would ask the banks to shoulder the blame but I ask her to withdraw the section for a number of reasons. The Minister was present the morning Professor Kilborn spoke at the FLAC conference which I also attended. It was one of the most enlightening speeches I ever heard on...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: I have concerns about the implementation and the rush to implement this particular section, where we have the unusual provision that section 4(2) will come into operation on 3 May 2012. The Seanad sat on a Friday and is sitting today, Monday, to facilitate the enactment of the Bill. We have a motion for earlier signature on the Order Paper. We have the Presidential Commission waiting for...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: The bank guarantee Bill took quite a long time to pass through the Oireachtas as we often hear from Sinn Féin colleagues. They voted for it before they voted against it.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: What is the reason for the mad rush? As I said on Friday, the same applies to today, the doors of the Seanad and the Dáil are always open when we want to make cuts to the most vulnerable in society. I repeat my call. Where is the legislation from the Minister's Department and from the Departments of Justice and Equality and Finance that will help people? Why not open the doors of the...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: Scandinavian-type care.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: It is bad, because the programme for Government says we there should be a week between Stages of Bills. We had about an hour between two Stages last Friday and there were many interruptions.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: We are dealing with the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill. These two areas are very important - social welfare payments for the present and pensions for the future. The issue of pensions is not being debated sufficiently. I appeal to the Minister that in the future separate legislation be published by the Department of Social Protection dealing with social welfare payments and pensions. It...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: With all the discussion about commitments, policies, Government decisions and the Minister's integrity, we are forgetting that this is a parliament and that it has a responsibility to pass laws. All that will matter at the end of our deliberations will be the words that are contained in the Bill when it is enacted. Nothing else matters and, as a result, any debate on commitments, promises...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: It is fine to support the Government because one is obliged to do so. However, those opposite have all stated that they disagree with the legislation and that they want it to be changed. Let us change it and do what they have stated should be done. They should vote in favour of the amendments which have been put forward and which were drafted in light of what the Minister, Deputy Burton,...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: What of deaths and separations?

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: The Minister in what was an excellent exposition of general policy in this area has not addressed or given her view on the amendment. I know that is a matter for the Cathaoirleach. Our amendment sets out what the Minister set out in the Dáil last week. It offers the chance to copperfasten for those children and parents exactly what was said by the Minister last week in the Dáil. Is she...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: The Minister is getting on well with them.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012: Committee Stage (27 Apr 2012)

Thomas Byrne: That would have been over a number of years.